Mutant Roundup
by Carbon-Based Biped
Summary: What if the Mutant Registration Act was passed? This story includes characters I invented.
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters except for those I invent. I include a character I invented named Marie. She will be referred to as Marie, and Rogue as Rogue.

D.C. is a character I invented. For details read "D.C. and the CN Tower" chapters one through five.

Marie and Jean-Pierre are also characters I invented. For details read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapters one through eight.

Is that all? I think so. Enjoy the story and r/r!

"What the heck is going on?" D.C. sat groggily up. He checked Clark's digital alarm clock across the room. 1:38. _1:38?!?_ He looked around and saw the other boys he shared his room with, Clark, John, and Jean-Pierre, running around the room trying to find clean clothes. D.C. watched, deeply amused, then asked, "Dare I ask why I was shaken awake as if the mansion were on fire?"

Jean-Pierre whirled around and glared at him. "If you had been listening to me you would have known that there is an emergency meeting in the lunchroom in less then five minutes. Mr. Summers was just here and he practically dragged me out of bed, told me about the meeting, and ordered me to wake everyone else. Then he dashed off again."

D.C. sighed and got up. He went to his drawer, got out his clothes, and calmly put them on. He thought it was slightly funny that he alone knew where his clean clothes were, and everybody else in the room was pulling drawers out and strewing articles of clothing about. He walked out the door and saw that there were many students already out in the hall. Many were yawning and grumbling, dragging their feet. Everyone sped up when they heard Mr. Summers yell, "If you are not in the lunchroom in less then three minutes, I'll expect a ten page report on the history of toothbrushes today at 1:30!" 

Great, thought D.C. 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 57 seconds to get a ten-page history report on a dental hygiene tool. Let's see, toothbrushes invented in China, mainly pointy sticks. Romans drill holes in stick, place animal fur in. Then, in the 1800's…

Still recounting the history of the toothbrush, and getting more scared by his knowledge by the minute, he reached the lunchroom. About ¾ of the students were there, moaning, yawning, moping, or falling asleep on each others' shoulders or on the wall next to them. D.C. spotted Bobby, Rogue, and Marie. He decided to sit down with them. Marie appeared to be fighting to stay awake, and Bobby kept putting chunks of ice down her back to keep her awake. Rogue was sipping at some hot liquid. D.C. sat down next to the wall. He saw an electric outlet, so he took out an extension cord he had brought with him. He plugged one end into the wall, and put the other end in his arm. The electric current started to feed him, and he felt considerably more awake.

All the students were in the lunchroom now. Jean-Pierre, Clark, and John came over to sit with D.C., Bobby, Marie, and Rogue. "Do you have any idea what's happening?" Jean-Pierre asked Rogue. She shook her head, and lifted her cup for another sip. 

Just then, all the teachers came in, namely Miss Munroe, Miss Grey, and Mr. Summers. They sat down together at a table at the very front. Logan came in as well and he sat down at the table next to theirs. Then, D.C. could hear the electric whir of Professor Xavier's wheelchair coming down the hall. A respectful silence passed through the crowd. Everyone knew that Professor X had telepathic powers. That's how most of them had been found. They didn't know how, but Professor X had found some of them when they were miles away. A few kids had even been in a different state or in Canada when he found them. 

So it was best to have happy thoughts whenever he was around. Although he encouraged them to think how they wanted, nobody wanted to be caught with bad images in his or her head. So everyone always put on a rather fixed smile on their face when Professor X came into a room. 

The only person who didn't need to worry about this was D.C. Something about him made it impossible for Professor X to read his thoughts except under the right circumstances, which was a very rare event. Professor X wanted to find out what was so special about D.C., but D.C. just thought that since he was made of pure energy there was too much interference for his brain waves to get through. 

Anyway, let's get the author's train of thought back at the station. Toot, toot! We will be stopping at Supreme Kahuna's brain for a while. For those getting off at this location, please locate your belongings and make sure they are not left on the train. After we have left Supreme Kahuna's brain, we will proceed directly to…

To Readers: Sorry about that. From: Author

Professor turned his wheelchair towards the students. He looked very grave, almost as if someone had died. "You all of course know about the Mutation Registration Act and the controversy about it." Everybody nodded. "Well, I have just been informed that the US Senate met in secret yesterday and voted. Then the House of Representatives voted on it. And then the president signed it. The MRA has been made law, and it is…effective immediately." Panicky whispering had broken out. Marie and Jean-Pierre looked around, obviously confused. D.C. leaned towards them.

"The Mutant Registration Act is where police go around arresting suspected mutants. If they find a mutant they tag him or her so that everyone else will know. Almost everyone in the country wanted it to be that way."

"Why is everyone suddenly look like death is upon us?"

"Because it will make it easier for mutant-haters to find and hurt or kill mutants! It's like with the Jews in Germany before World War Two. The German government forced Jews to wear the Star of David so that people would know not to have anything to do with them. When our government exposes mutants nobody will want anything to do with them! They won't be able to buy food, go to school, or go to work!"

"But that is terrible!"

Just then, Professor X raised his hand for silence. "Because of this I have decided to move the school. I have another mansion in Canada for just this kind of emergency. You will go back to your rooms, pack your things, and come back here in thirty minutes for further instructions. Thirty minutes, starting now."

And everybody got up and headed for the door. As D.C. walked down the hall he looked through the open bedroom doors and saw boys and girls running around trying to find suitcases, treasured items, or articles of clothing. He walked into his room, and found the three other boys already in there. The room was in such a state of disarray D.C. had to use his scanning power to find his bed. Everybody was asking each other where certain items were, and D.C. answered most of the questions.

"Where's my hat?"

"Under your bed."

"Where are some of my clean socks?"

"In your dirty clothes basket."

"Where's my coat?"

"In the laundry room."

"Where's my CD player?"

"In your backpack."

"Where's my teddy bear?"

"Your _what_? Never mind, it's in your dresser."

"Where is my retainer?"

"In the cup by your bed."

"Where is the light switch? And why are we doing all this in the dark?"

"Three and a half feet to your left and I don't know."

"How do you know where everything is?"

"Because of my scanning ability. For example, Jean-Pierre's CDs are in Clark's pants, Clark's dictionary is in the wastebasket, and John's lighter is in the toilet, Mr. Summers is in the basement, and there is no one in the luchroom. Any questions?"

"Yes. John, why do you keep putting my dictionary in the garbage?"

"Why do you keep putting my lighter in the toilet?"

"The mansion has a basement?"

D.C. rolled his eyes and conjured a sports bag out of the energy from Clark's alarm clock. He carefully folded his clothes, put them in and zipped it shut. He grabbed his backpack, which had his laptop, schoolbooks, and yesterday's homework in it and headed for the lunchroom with twenty minutes to spare. 

"D.C.! Why are the numbers on my alarm clock flashing?"

He was the first one back in the lunchroom, which was completely deserted. He took out his laptop, signed onto the Internet, went to an encyclopedia web site and looked up toothbrushes. He began to read, barely aware of the steady stream of students into the room. When he looked up he was amazed to see the whole school sitting in the lunchroom with an assortment of suitcases, bags, and slings. Professor X was at the front of the room, and he was just opening his mouth to speak.

Then Mr. Summers came racing into the room, whispered something in Professor X's ear, and ran back out. The professor's face, which was already solemn, turned into a face of stone. He started to speak to the class.

"Scott has just informed me that a convoy of SWAT teams and army units are on route from Westchester. Somebody has told them this building is a training ground for a mutant revolution." He stopped for a moment, heaved a giant sigh, and continued. "That doesn't give us enough time to evacuate all of you. Therefore the teachers and I have agreed that we can bestow on you a great trust. Very few students have ever been taken where you are going. Grab your stuff, we're going into the lower levels."

Whispering broke out again. "What does he mean, "the lower levels?"

"Maybe he's taking us into the basement?" 

"We don't have a basement!"

"Maybe it's a bomb shelter?"

"I doubt it. Then it wouldn't be a secret."

DC rolled his eyes again. He'd known about the secret under levels of the mansion almost from the moment he had discovered his scanning power.

"Will everyone please follow me down the hall? This will take some time."

Everybody stood up. They followed Professor X out of the lunchroom down that. They stopped at an unremarkable portion of curved wall. Everyone was very surprised when it opened, revealing an elevator.

About four kids could fit in the elevator. This made progress slow, and everyone was shifting restlessly and nervously, waiting for the sound of the elevator coming back up and listening for any activity outside. Many times a sound outside caused everyone to jump, which was very unfortunate for Marie. She had already hit her head on the ceiling four times, and she landed on top of D.C. the third time. Rogue was hard pressed to keep anyone from touching the bare skin on her face when they jumped. For one horrible moment she thought she had touched Clark in front of her, but he only coughing.

D.C. was at the very back. He kept scanning the grounds outside, just to make sure the cops weren't here yet. They're not here. They're not here. They're not here. _They are here!_

"They are here."

"Are you sure?"

Jean-Pierre strained his ears, but he couldn't detect any sirens.

"They are not here! Quit teasing. This is no time for-!"

Right on cue, sirens could be heard approaching.

The elevator came back up. There were six people left, Katie, Jubilee, Clark, Jean-Pierre, Rogue, and D.C. The girls and Clark got in, and it went back down. Now D.C. and Jean-Pierre could here men and women shouting to each other outside, and they as the voices got closer, they got fainter until they couldn't be heard at all. Then D.C. heard glass shattering nearby. 

"They're inside."

Jean-Pierre's face had gone white. He backed against the concealed door, turned around and starting pounding it with his fists.

"You idiot, stop that!"

D.C. grabbed Jean-Pierre and pulled him away from the door. It opened. But at the same time, D.C. became aware of footsteps. A SWAT team was coming, and they were about to turn around the corner.

Quick as a flash D.C. literally threw Jean-Pierre into the elevator, whispered, "I'll distract them." and used his powers to shut the door. He turned and ran into a doorway. He peeked around the corner, and saw men and women in _bomb squad armor?_

D.C. shook his head in disgust. Reaching out with his power, he used something he had only learned last week.

A door opened, and out raced a girl in a nightdress. Somebody yelled, and half of them chased after the girl. She turned the corner, and there D.C. made the hologram disappear. While the other members of the SWAT team looked after them, D.C. burst from his own hiding spot, and ran down the hall.

"STOP! FREEZE! POLICE!"

D.C. raced down the hall, and he was pleased to hear several of them stumble and fall in their heavy armor. They had probably never worn anything like it, and it really didn't help in the slightest. D.C. raced around the corner, and froze. Another squad was there, and they were all pointing their guns at him.

"Get your hands over your head!"

D.C. pondered his situation for a split second. Then he created a holographic mist that spread so thick that a person couldn't see a hand in front of their eyes. D.C. ran toward the hidden elevator. He was going to make it! He was almost-

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Six shots rang out. Two pierced D.C.'s stomach. Three went through his chest. One through his neck and the last through his forehead. Mercury splashed on the ground as D.C. fell to his knees. He raised his hand to touch the hole in his forehead, but he passed out before he could do so.


	2. Chapter II

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. Marie is a character I invented. I will always call her Marie, and I will refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue. 

D.C. is a character I invented. For details, please see "D.C. and the CN Tower" chapters one, two, three, four, and five.

Marie and Jean-Pierre are also characters I invented. For details, see "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris" chapters one through eight.

Pain. That was D.C.'s first thought. He felt like his head, neck, chest and abdomen were on fire. He unconsciously sifted around for a power source with his scanning power. He located one. Then, purely by instinct, he drew out electricity, and his body used it to repair itself. The pain quickly subsided, and D.C. came back to his senses.

He sat up. He was in a hospital bed, but the room he was in didn't look like a hospital room at all. It was made entirely of gray concrete and cement. It was a small room, about the size of a public restroom, and the door was located at the wall opposite him. It was made of what looked like steel. However, upon scanning it, D.C. found to his surprise it was lead surrounded by a shield of adamantium. He also found to his even greater surprise that he was deep underground. _Very _deep. But…that could only mean…no, it couldn't…yes, it is. An underground nuclear testing silo.

The police. The police must have bought him here. But why? Unless…oh dear. I think my friends in New York City took a photo of me before I escaped. Either that or they built a silo like this for every mutant they capture. 

D.C. noticed a TV camera above the door and his suspicious were confirmed. If this was a silo used for testing nuclear bombs, why bother putting a camera in? To make sure the bomb didn't get up and run away?

D.C. waved at the camera with a smile on his face. He lay down in the bed, closed his eyes and concentrated. He saw the camera in his mind. Then he mentally went inside it and traveled up the cord. Professor X could do something similar, but only with human minds. D.C. could do it only to machines and electrical systems. He had done this many times on the road, sending his mind's eye through power lines to find suitable spots to spend the night.

So now he used this power to go up the closed circuit line leading up from the camera up through ¾ of a mile of cable up into a high tech control room on the surface. It was located on a mountain near Westchester. 

The control room was in an old mine town at the entrance of an abandoned mine shaft. It was a darkened room with dozens of monitors and computers. About a hundred soldiers were present. With a shock of surprise and anger D.C. saw the monitors showing every member of the school. Other monitors showed children and adults D.C. didn't know. But there was no doubt they too were mutants. 

One child had green colored skin and vivid purple eyes. A woman was attempting to escape using low frequency sound waves. D.C. saw the door shaking like mad but it didn't give way. The woman looked very tired, and D.C. had the feeling that what his mind's eye was seeing wasn't the peak of her powers. 

A young man with red eyes wearing a trench coat kept taking deck cards out of his pocket. When he held them in his hand they glowed a brilliant red. He threw them at the door. When they hit the adamantium they exploded. But they were unsuccessful as well. Every time they failed, the man swore in French and tried again.

Another man, an old one, seemed resigned to his fate. He sat on the ground, staring into nothingness, a great mound of dirt behind him, where the ceiling had somehow given way.

A girl, perhaps six or seven, was just as scared, but she was running around and screaming. D.C. could tell it was a girl by her screaming. She was running around so fast she was only a blur.

In another room, D.C. saw Bobby flash freezing the room over and over again, trying to open up a crack. But the concrete had no cracks for the ice to get into, and so Bobby would try to make a crack from time to time, but he only got a bruised hand.

Katie, Jean-Pierre, and Professor X were all unconscious. It was obviously because their powers were too dangerous. Katie could walk through walls. Jean-Pierre could control geological activity. And Professor X could control people's thoughts and actions.

And so it went. D.C. checked every monitor. He saw all sorts of people. Some were using their powers to try to escape, but all were unsuccessful. Those who could get out no problem were under the influence of sedatives. Some people just sat on their beds or on the floor, staring into space. Others were screaming, running around, begging the camera to let them go, and other such things. D.C. saw little children sitting in corners, tears running down their cheeks, crying out for their parents. 

D.C. found that the army was using highly advanced technology to monitor and study the mutant prisoners. They were all trying to figure out how mutant powers work, so that they could be used in warfare. D.C. found lists of names, and discovered that every mutant in the nation was going to one of four prisons. This one here, another near Denver, another near Salt Lake City, and the last one in the Arizona desert. All were located in mines. All were being filled to capacity. And all had been being built ever since the mutant population began to rise.

D.C. had seen enough. He returned to his own room, opened his eyes, and sat up. He began to ponder what he was going to do. He could probably attack the computer core, shutting it down. No, if anything that would heighten security, and somebody could easily get killed. But what then? He had to figure out some way to get the army out of the way, free all the prisoners, then get to those other prisons and set them free as well. But how? D.C. thought and thought until his head hurt. He was stumbling on the seed of a plan, when the door gave a series of thuds and swung open. A dozen soldiers came in, surrounding two doctors. One of them held something in his hand.

Oh no. Sedatives!

"Mutant number 158362 is out."

Up in the control room, a doctor and a general sat next to each other. They looked intently at the screen showing D.C.'s room. It showed the soldiers and doctors leaving the room, leaving D.C. on the bed, out for the count. They both got up and walked out of the control room into a small conference room. A table was there, and the two men sat down at opposite ends of it.

"So doctor. Tell me what has been done so far."

"Well General Hardington, we have rounded up about three-quarters of the estimated mutant population. And we discovered mutants with incredible powers.

"A woman we found can manipulate the climate around her. A girl can somehow drain energy from life forms. She seems to have caused a boy's coma in Mississippi. 

"A senior man can change the brain waves of other people and mutants. He seems to be the leader of a mutant rebellion. He ran some sort of a school that taught mutant children how to use their powers for war purposes.

"Another man we found can shoot giant bursts of kinetic energy from his eyes. A younger man has a similar power, but he concentrates the energy into physical objects.

"A boy can create ice and freezing temperatures at will. A little girl found in Maryland can run at fantastic speeds averaging about 400 miles per hour. 

"We had a problem with this one man. Scared the living daylights of my men because he looks like some sort of a giant blue ape. He surrendered almost immediately, blabbering something about showing the world that mutants are people too.

"A little boy has telekinetic power, as does a totally unrelated woman. A woman from Washington, D.C. can emit low frequency sound waves. A teenage boy can control geologically related events.

"All the former mutants can control and command certain forms of energy. But I called you here today to discuss about the power of the mutant we just saw.

"He can control energy and convert it from one form to another. He can even turn ordinary matter into energy and vice versa. And we believe he could adapt his power to include every other mutant power on the planet.

"Imagine it! This kid could be a kind of ultra mutant! A kid about 20 years old commanding every force known! He could take on the appearance of others using holograms! He could control the weather by administering energy to air masses! He could create ice blankets over anything he wished by converting energy into ice crystals! He could even have telekinetic ability. Just use some spare energy and move objects! Our scientists and doctors can think of a million things this kid can do. 

"That is why I called you out here today. This kid could be the most dangerous person in the history of the mankind. We don't think he knows his full capabilities, but it is only a matter of time. If he knew, why, he could take over the world. If he wanted too, he could encase the planet in ice. He could cause an explosion in the teraton range. He could cause an F-10 tornado. He could set off a volcano the size of Alaska. He holds the fate of humanity in his hands, and he doesn't even know it. 

"Sir, many of these mutants discovered their powers when they were scared or angry. Imagine what would happen if that kid gets pissed off. 

"We need to figure out to do with this kid, before he wipes us all out."

For those who don't know, "Tera" is a unit used like kilo, mega, or giga. A teraton would be equal to about one quadrillion tons of TNT. One quadrillion is a one followed by fifteen zeros.


	3. Chapter III

"What do you mean I'm crazy? I'm not crazy!"

"Yes you are, why else would I be here?!?"

Just because I have a voice in my head does not mean I'm crazy! It just means- Oh no, we, I mean _I _have visitors. I wasn't expecting them for a story like this!"

"I'm surprised too."

"Shut up! Oh, not you reader."

"Oh, you're cheeks are turning red. I can feel it because _I'm inside your head!"_

"No, you are not! Shut up and let the reader read this story, or else I'll punch your lights out!"

"Oh really? Just try!"

WHAM!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.

For details on Marie and her friend Jean-Pierre, please read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapter one through eight.

D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

D.C. sat up, still a little groggy from the sedatives. How did they find a sedative that worked on me? He wondered. Since D.C. wasn't a normal human being, medicines, sedatives, etc., didn't work on him. It might be that he had pure mercury for blood. It might be the 500 trillion watts going through his bloodstream. Whatever the reason, a sedative hadn't worked on D.C. his entire life. Until now that is.

He shook himself awake, and the first thing he noticed was that his hair had been cut. Before the doctors or the army or whoever had knocked him out, D.C. had had shoulder length electric blue hair that matched his eyes. 

He had gotten his eye and hair color from microwaves. When he had been traveling the US, he stopped at a convenience store in Las Vegas. It had had a microwave oven, so D.C. bought a mini-pizza and put it in the oven. However, it hadn't closed completely. So when D.C. had pressed START, the microwaves leaked out and hit D.C. He became so energized he had a hard time walking casually out the door. When he was out of view, he sped off at a terrific speed, running several times around Las Vegas. When he stopped he happened to look at his reflection in a store window. It had been a shock to suddenly have blue shoulder length hair and bright blue eyes. His hair had been brown and his eyes hazel before the transformation, so he rather liked the new colors. 

He had eventually become fond of his hair, and now to have it cut was a personal insult. It was now in a buzz, a hairstyle D.C. didn't like at all. The possibility to take some energy from a power source and use it to get his hairstyle back. He quickly looked around and found that he was in a very large underground room. It about the size of a football stadium, and it was comprised of cold gray concrete. D.C. was in the center of the huge room, which was in the shape of a rectangle. The ceiling high above had florescent lights in it, all of which were tiny pinpricks. D.C. sighed, then slowly started drawing electricity from it. The energy was just barely visible as a faint blue thread that looked like a string of silk that a spider trails behind as it descends from the ceiling. D.C.'s hand was extended above his head, as if he were straining for the sky. After a few minutes, the thread connected with his hand, and his hair started to grow. It was like watching speeded up video documentaries of plants growing. When his hair reached his shoulders, D.C. lowered his hand, and the remaining energy in the thread dispersed to the surrounding air with a faint crackling. D.C. arranged his hair follicles the way he like, then he set off toward on of the walls.

Meanwhile, a camera in the ceiling was watching him. It sent the images up to the control room, straight into the conference room where the doctor and general sat watching. The general shook his head, amazed at what he just saw.

"This is a heat scam of the same sequence."

The video started playing again, this time with the floor generally black and D.C. red. Then a thin white line descended and made contact with D.C., who also turned white.

"This kid is amazing. He can heal himself and change his appearance simply by gathering energy in himself and converting it to matter. We are now going to send in a new weapon we just developed. We call them "sentinels", and if we can find a way to mass produce them, we could track down every mutant in the world without the local authorities and people ever noticing."

D.C. was almost to the wall where he could see the outline of a huge door when it suddenly opened. And out walked the most enormous thing D.C. had ever seen, except skyscrapers. 

It was a giant robot in the shape of a man, about 60 feet tall. It looked around, saw D.C., and said in a mechanical voice, "Target sighted. Proceed with operation." With that it started to walk toward D.C., its footsteps thudding on the gray concrete.

OK, this could be a problem. D.C. backed up. The robot covered the distance between them quickly. When it stood right in front of him, the robot raised its hand, and metal cords came shooting out of its palm. They snaked down toward D.C., trying to wrap him up like a Christmas package. D.C. let loose several blasts of energy while he ran from the robot. The blasts knocked the cords away, but they kept coming back. D.C. aimed a blast at the robot's legs. It hit, knocking the robot's legs from under him. He landed flat on his face with a resounding clang that echoed loudly in the enormous room.

The robot tried to get up, which distracted the metal cords a bit. D.C. kept running until he got to the opposite wall. The giant robot had shrunk to the size of a normal man. D.C. pressed himself against the wall, hoping he was far enough away that he couldn't be seen. He watched the robot right itself, and then _flames appeared from the robot's feet and it started to fly toward him._

This could present a problem. D.C. looked wildly around and spotted the florescent lights high above. That's how he could escape! He was preparing to go up into them, when the lights were suddenly extinguished. He could hear mechanical groaning coming from the ceiling, and he flew up to the ceiling and felt his way along in the darkness trying to find the glass or plastic that separated him from freedom. All he felt however was a smooth surface. He felt along for a while before he realized what it was. Rubber. A giant sheet of thick rubber. The lights had gone out because a rubber sheet had been pulled across the ceiling to prevent his escape! Geez, these guys didn't miss a thing! 

D.C. became aware of the roar of the rockets on the robot's feet. They kept getting louder then quieter. D.C. realized that the huge thing was sweeping back and forth across the ceiling trying to find him. Well, I'll fix him.

Out of D.C. burst blue flame. It expanded throughout the room, eventually filling it completely.

"What the- How hot is it in there?" The doctor asked the question through an intercom, and a woman's voice answered.

"We don't know sir. The thermometer isn't registering anymore. We think it's been destroyed. Its last reading was at plasma temperatures. It sent that information for a fraction of a second then it stopped transmitting."

"What about the sentinel?"

"It has stopped transmitting too. We think it has also been destroyed."

"Doctor, what did she mean by "plasma temperatures?"

The general's eyes were glued to the screen, which showed only static after the blue flame had engulfed it.

"People only learn about the three states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas. But there is another state of matter, called plasma. It is a form of super heated gas. It usually only exists at the cores of stars. That room right now is about as hot as the hottest star in the known universe!"

"Does that pose a danger?"

Meanwhile, the French guy with the exploding cards stared at the adamantium door. He had been trying to work his cards into the gap between the door and the frame but they fit so snugly not even the thin cards could go between them. That is until the shaking started.

A dull roar had begun and the ground started shaking. The door had started to vibrate, clanging against the frame. By holding one of the cards against the thin line which was the divide, he was slowly able to get it in. When it was stuck about three-quarters of the way in, the card glowed a bright red in the man's hand. He quickly ran to the other side of the room and took shelter underneth his bed. His red eyes darted toward the door.

"Gambit thinks he gonna escape in just a minute."

The card exploded.

The concrete surrounding the door was designed to withstand a nuclear blast. What the designer didn't count on was an explosion coming from within the doorframe itself. Concrete cracked. Rubble flew everywhere. And an alarm somewhere sounded. But even as Gambit ran down the dust filled hall, not a single soldier was seen.

He ran and hide through an intricate network of sub hallways. These gradually led to a sort of main hallway. And hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers were pouring down it, heading toward a giant staircase that led into the bowels of the underground prison complex. Gambit hid in the tunnel he was in. After about an hour the river of soldiers slowed to a trickle, and then none at all. Gambit stole across the hall, looking for an exit, when he noticed an important looking door. It had the words, "SECURITY HEADQUARTERS" written on it.

Gambit quietly opened the door and peered in. It was obviously supposed to be filled with soldiers, but at the moment there was only one guard. He had probably been left to supervise the whole complex, and that hadn't been a smart thing to do. 

Gambit creeped toward him. The soldier was standing at a console, leaning over and looking at something. With a swift punch he knocked out the guard. Then he gave his attention to the room itself.

It was full of beeping monitors, consoles, and super computers. He quickly turned to the console the soldier had been so interested in. What he saw was two computer screens, one with a diagram of a large room. It was completely blue. It said, "Thermographics" in one corner. This made no sense to Gambit, so he turned he attention to the other screen. It showed the revolving figure of a boy, probably 18 or 19, with long blue hair. His favorite color was obviously blue, because he was wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt, blue shoes, and blue socks. Next to the figure there was scrolling words. It gave his name, age, weight, and then a lengthy description of his powers.

As Gambit started to read, his mouth hung open. He learned all about this kid, and his potential. The army was very nervous about this kid, so they took him to some sort of a testing room to see if he would reveal his true powers. It seemed that he was defending himself with some sort of a plasma shield. He was directing the plasma at the wall. The concrete was melting fast, so the army sent all it had to contain him. Soldiers were stationed all around the room, ready to fight.

Hmm. If this kid is fighting like this just to get out of that room, he'll wipe out the whole complex if they open fire on him. I have to distract the guards.

Gambit looked around the room. But a sign saying "MAIN" drew his attention. It was the master control console. And it had a little button on it protected by a glass shield, that said "ALL DOOR RELEASE" Gambit broke the glass and pushed the button.

At that moment every door to every cell in the whole prison slid open. And several thousand mutants were released.


	4. Chapter IV

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.

For details on Marie and her friend Jean-Pierre, please read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapter one through eight.

D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

D.C. had expected a big fight to get out. He had expected a hard time trying to keep the plasma supplied with energy. To tell the truth he had expected himself to run out of energy, and then the army would dispose of him. But what he hadn't expected was the door opening by itself.

He had immediately stopped the plasma. It had no purpose now. Then he regretted doing that when a volley of gunfire suddenly burst from the huge door.

Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers were gathered in another large room. They all had machine guns which were blasting away. D.C. created more plasma, but this time is was just enough to cover himself. Any bullets that came toward him were vaporized. D.C. then turned his attention to getting through the soldiers. But the question was answered for him.

Suddenly all the soldiers just collapsed. One moment they were awake and alert then in the next moment sleeping like logs. D.C. Professor X in his electric wheelchair. He gestured to D.C. who's plasma shield dissipated. He ran to the door, which resembled the door to an airplane hanger, stepped carefully over the sleeping soldiers, then walked up to Professor X who was sitting in a similar doorway.

"Hiya. What's up?"

"No time. Come on."

D.C. followed Professor X through yet another large room. This time it had a regular door tucked away in one corner. It opened and D.C. saw Cyclops look in.

"Hurry up! It's a mess out here!"

D.C. wondered what was happening. When he got to the door and looked out into the hallway, he stopped and did a double take.

It was total chaos. D.C. could hear several explosions in the distance. Pieces of paper and metal were scattered on the floor, and people, dozens of people, were running up and down. They were all trying to find the way out. D.C. could see rows and rows of open metallic doors stretching in both directions.

D.C. saw a door saying "STAIRS" across the hall from him. He moved toward it, but he got distracted. 

Suddenly a pink blur zoomed past, creating a sonic boom. It also caused a vacuum, which sucked paper and metal along. It looked remarkably like a comet with a tail. The vacuum was strong enough to throw people off their feet.

"I'll be right back."

With that D.C. disappeared into the row on lights on the ceiling.

Going through an electrical system was always a nice experience. It was like flying through a tunnel filled with little blue lights, and it made D.C. feel great. He didn't have time to enjoy it this time though. He had to time this very carefully. He got ahead of the speeding blur. Then, 100 feet in front of it, he created a network of tightly intertwined light beams. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a brick wall stood blocking the hallway. The blur slowed. A shrill shrieking was heard and sour-smelling smoke came of the blur. The blur itself was sharpening, revealing itself to be a girl. Her rubber sneakers were pressed hard against the concrete floor. Smoke was pouring from them as the girl struggled to stop herself.

Finally she squealed to a stop barely two inches from the wall. She leaned over a little, panting slightly, and her head went through the wall. 

She leapt back in surprise. Then she stood forward again. She put her hand against the wall and it fell through. She cocked her head. Then she walked through it. When she came out the other side, she looked behind her in wonder.

Meanwhile above her, D.C. watched from one of the lights. The girl was about ten or eleven, brown hair, hazel eyes. She was tall for her age, but other then that she was a perfectly normal girl, except for her ability to run that fast.

Suddenly the lights went out. D.C. could hear the dull roar of an explosion above him. It shook the passageway strong enough that little pebbles of concrete fell from the ceiling. Time to go.

First he relit the lights. Then he dropped down from the electrical system on the other side of the phony brick wall. He caused the hologram to disappear, and the girl jumped back again.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she demanded with a thick New Jersey accent.

"Relax, I came to help you."

"Why do I need help from some guy like you?"

"Because I know this guy. He' a mutant like you. He's got this school where mutants can go when they are out of luck."

"I don't need help. I'm getting along just fine."

"If you're getting along so fine, why were you panicking?"

"Hey! I've been through a lot! You don't know what it's like to be by yourself at my age. You just don't understand."

"Oh, but I do. Let me guess. Your friends see you running that fast, figure out that you're a mutant and tell their parents. Parents get all scared because you might run over their kids. Your parents get hate mail and stuff, and one way or another, you're out. You wonder the streets, begging and stealing food. Sure, you're getting along _fine. _That guy I mentioned feeds and clothes mutant kids and gives them a home. If you would rather sleep on the street, and spend time among people who hate and fear you instead of with people just like you, that's fine with me. See ya around."

With that, D.C. turned and walked away. He didn't turn around, but he could just feel the wheels turning in her head. After about ten seconds he could hear her running footsteps.

"Hey, wait up."

"OK kid. I'm going up into the ceiling, ok? I want you to follow the blinking lights. When they start glowing yellow, slow down. When you see one of them go red, stop. See you there."

"Wait! What do you mean, 'go up into the ceiling?'"

D.C. didn't answer. He simply jumped up into the electrical system. He started in the direction of Professor X, causing the lights behind him to blink. She started to follow them, and D.C. noticed a few people he hadn't noticed run to catch up. He slowed down for them, figuring he might as well lead to Professor X as well.

Pretty soon he had a whole bunch of people following his blinking lights. They were a whole assortment of people representing every race. There were a few odd looking people in the crowd filling the hallway, but if that's what evolution's going to give you, you might as well take it. 

He sent his mind's eye ahead. When he saw he was approaching Professor X and Cyclops, he made the lights glow yellow. Finally he was right above them, and the light right above them turned red.

He dropped down, greeted them, and turned just in time to see the girl stop in front of them.

"Professor, this is the girl I was telling you about. I'd introduce you, but I don't believe I know your name."

"Sheila."

Sheila. Cool name.

"Sheila this is Professor Xavier, headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. In other words, Xavier's School for Outcast Mutants."

"Hello Sheila. I'm pleased to meet you."

"I'm been told by him that you can help me."

"Well, I try to help kids like you."

"I'd hate to interrupt this conversation, but we have company."

Cyclops' comment caused all of them to turn around. The crowd of mutants that had followed D.C.'s blinking lights had arrived. A man stepped forward.

"Hey man, do you know how to get out of here?"

"I do." answered Professor X. "I'd lead you there, but I came to lead everyone on this floor out. Are there other people on this floor?"

"Thousands. I don't know how we can find them all."

"Leave it to me."

When D.C. had explored the army's computers system's with his mind's eye, he had discovered an intercom system that ran through the whole complex. He spotted a speaker a few feet from where they were standing. He walked over to it. He ripped off the grate covering and tapped into it using his power. When he spoke, his voice echoed and reechoed. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"Attention. Attention please. All cell doors have been opened, and complex security has been overwhelmed. The army thought they could hold us, and they were wrong." Cheering could be heard coming from down the hall. "The only thing that remains to be done is to get the hell out of here. To get to the main stairs please follow the yellow lights above you. Now, a big crowd will be gathering here, so I will ask beforehand, please don't push! We have a lot of little kids here that are scared out of their wits. If you see a child that has no idea where to go, please point out the lights or lead the child yourself. That is all. Yellow lights will be starting…now."

In his imagination, D.C. could see lights start blinking yellow. Looking like those Christmas lights that flash in sequence they would start off toward the stairs. He imagined thousands of people following. 

This was an easy thing to do because right now D.C. was supplying the electricity. Something had happened to the main generator, so D.C. had taken over its work. The announcement had been broadcasted on all the floors, so D.C. had to do this on every level. The stairs were going to be very crowded very soon.

D.C. could see people coming this way already.

After about three hours everybody on that floor was there. And what a crowd it was!

It consisted of about 4,000 people stretching away in both directions. The age difference ranged from a four-year-old boy to a 97-year-old great-grandmother. Every race was here, but here and there were people with oddly colored skin or eyes. Everywhere else they had probably been stoned or beaten up, but here they were among friends for the first time in their lives. Here a certain kinship was felt, almost like the crowd was saying to one another, "I'm a mutant, you're a mutant, therefore we're family."

There was almost no shoving. People were calming down little kids who were very scared. Others were talking to each other, and even a few friends were reunited who had never known that one or the other had been a mutant.

The ascent to the surface was slow, given that people from higher floors were also climbing up. Luckily this crowd was on the bottom floor, so there was no competition coming from below. 

D.C. was standing beside the door that led to the stairs. He was making sure that there was no violence or panic or something like that, but that was highly unlikely. So he just talked to passing people. Calming some down, making conversation with others. Once he had taken a little girl from a rather bewildered woman who had been trying to stop her crying for the longest time.

First D.C. had conjured up a handkerchief. He had dried her tears and asked her what was wrong. She said between sobs that she missed her mommy and daddy, and that this was the first time she had been separated from her stuffed kitty Cathy.

He coaxed out the information on how the stuffed animal looked, and took some energy and turned into a stuffed kitten. When the girl saw it she reached out for it and hugged it tightly.

D.C. saw an amazing amount of little children in the crowd. He had been told that mutant powers usually came out during puberty. But some of these kids were no older then six, so it must be coming out earlier and earlier.

He was rather worried about this. It was bad enough when powers were revealed in teenagers. But if it happened at such a young age…D.C. could remember his days on the road. He had been twelve when it happened. Life on the streets was extremely hard, and he shuddered when he thought of that same weight placed on the shoulders of an even younger kid. Then an even more horrible thought past through his mind. What if mutant powers started coming out during infancy?

Finally the end of the crowd was in sight. It had now been maybe nine, ten hours since D.C. had been freed. Many people were looking very sleeping, and a lot of people had sleeping children in their arms. When the last person, a middle aged Asian man, was through the door and going up the stairs, D.C. scanned the floor. When he was satisfied that this floor was completely evacuated, he followed the crowd through the door.

When he closed the door, he let all the lights go out on that floor. Keeping the lights on was getting tiring, and D.C. welcomed the slight surge of energy he felt when the lights blacked out on that floor.

The stairs. The stairs were very wide, enough to accommodate fifteen people marching side by side. It was a spiral staircase, winding up so tightly nobody could see around the bend. It was made on concrete, just like everything else in the prison. Steps were echoing loudly as people wearily climbed up. 

The line was moving as slowly as ever. Nobody could stop and rest because it was constantly moving. People were looking sleepier and sleepier.

Meanwhile, up in the main security room, Gambit was exploring the army's mutant database. Every mutant in the complex had a file describing their powers, appearance, and mental situation. Gambit was trying to figure out how to delete the files. But it seemed as if the army had safeguarded against it. There were no delete buttons on any of the keyboards, nor were there any delete things on the menus on the computers. 

That Professor guy was helping. After releasing everyone he had stumbled on his file. Gambit figured he could be of some use. He found him and explained about the files. The Professor went to find some colleagues of his then he returned to help Gambit.

Gambit had found several monitors showing every square inch of the complex. He was monitoring the movement of the crowd to make sure there were no problems. He could get any view he wanted just by clicking on its icon on one of the computers.

But on the main computer, there was one icon that caught his attention. It said "OUTSIDE VIEW" under it, and Gambit clicked on it out of sheer curiosity. What he saw made him do a double take.

"Um, Professor? Would you come look at this?"

Suddenly, the line stopped. People called ahead to find out what the holdup was. Suddenly the intercom boomed, "Will David Casrey please come to the front of the line? I repeat, will David Casrey please come to the front of the line?"

"Excuse, I'm David Casrey. Oops, sorry, yes, I'm David Casrey…"

D.C. pressed himself to the wall trying to get up. About thirty minutes later and without too many injuries, he got to the top story. He had climbed up forty stories. He had gone up seven stories before they called his name. There was another doorway at the top of the stairs. He squeezed through, and with a hundred more bumps he got to a door, which the line led through. However, when he passed by a rather obscure door, it opened and Storm looked out.

"D.C., there you are. Come in here."

He walked in. He stopped. He was in a room filled with computers, consoles, and at the moment, about fifty mutants. They were standing in the middle of the room, looking at a TV screen. Professor X was in front, and when he saw D.C., he gravely waved him over.

"This TV shows the view of a TV screen right outside the entrance."

D.C. glanced at it, and his jaw dropped.

On the image was a building, an old building. Through the window however was a view of some high tech gadgets. D.C. recognized it as the main control room. And gathered around it was a great big problem.

Soldiers. A whole bunch of them, backed up by laser cannon equipped tanks, artillery, and low flying jet planes with missiles. As D.C. watched, on of the jets fired a missile, which flew past the camera and crashed somewhere out of the camera's view. At the same time, D.C. felt the ground quake and more dust was shaken from the ceiling. 

Great. The army has arranged a going away party.


	5. Chapter V

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.

For details on Marie and her friend Jean-Pierre, please read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapter one through eight.

D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

"OK. Here's our position. We are trapped in a giant underground prison complex. Here with us is every mutant in 15 states, which includes children. Outside the front door is an army that is preparing to blow us up as soon as we emerge. That army has guns, tanks, and jet planes. The only thing that's keeping us alive right now is the ventilation system, which is being supplied with power by myself. I can't keep it up much longer. OK, that's the situation, so what's the solution?"

Everyone in the room look thoughtful. Suddenly a man stepped from behind a woman. D.C. raised an eyebrow. The man's skin was blue, and his hands and feet had claws on them. He looked like a big blue ape.

"Can we reason with them?"

"I don't think so. There's a microphone up there with the camera, and listen to what the army's saying."

D.C. pressed a button. Immediately a harsh loud voice filled the room.

"SURRENDER MUTANTS! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! YOUR AUTHORITY IN THAT COMPLEX HAS BEEN SUPERSECDED-!" 

D.C. turned it off.

"See what I mean? As soon as we go out there they'll start shooting because for all they know we could blow them all off the face of the earth. They know I can, if I wanted too."

"Then why don't you?"

A heavyset man in his forties stepped forward.

"I mean, why can't we fight back? They go around the country and tear families apart! We should make them pay for what they have done to us!"

"With all due respect, what are you thinking? We have children here with us! If we go out there and start killing soldiers left and right, what's keeping them from blowing up the whole complex? Not to mention that a big fight is bound to attract public attention. The last thing the mutant community needs is for the army to say that mutants attacked them for no reason."

"But that's not true!"

"Who is everybody going to believe, them or us?"

The ape-man spoke again. "I'm afraid we may have no choice but to fight. As much as I'd like to settle this peacefully, I've run out of possibilities."

"All right. But we'll have to think about the people here. I propose that we find the people with the best fighting skills, then we move the rest back to the main stairway. The people we select will fight the army out there. Then, if we defeat them, everybody else can get out of here. All in favor?"

A few minutes later, D.C. gravely picked up a small microphone on a desk.

"Attention, attention please. I'm sure you are all wondering what the holdup is. A few people in here thought it best to keep the truth from you, but the majority thought it best for you to know what was going on. The military had brought a small army here, and they have surrounded the main entrance. It is the only way out. We cannot reason with them, so we have decided to raise an army of our own in here. We will ask certain people to join. If you are asked, you are free to refuse. Before the battle, all the children and elderly will be sent downstairs to the lowest level for their own safety. All others who won't be fighting will go as low underground as possible. I implore you, do not come up to the top three levels during the battle. If we win, messagers will be sent to notify you, and you will be free to go. If we lose…I won't talk about that.

"Good luck to all of you. We will start to ask people about the army now. If you pray, pray for us now. That is all."

The next morning, everyone prepared for the battle. Nearly every person asked to join the mutant army had said yes. D.C. preferred to call the army a posse because that is what it most resembled.

It consisted of about 600 people. A lot of the students at the school were in it, including Bobby, John, Jean-Pierre, Marie, and Jubilee. Gambit had also joined it, and so had the ape-man. (D.C. didn't like that term very much, so at the first opportunity he had asked for the man's name. It was Hank.) Sheila had joined, even though nobody had asked her.

D.C. of course was in the posse, as well as Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine. Jean and Professor X would stay to keep watch over the people staying behind, as would Rogue.

All the rest of the people in the posse D.C. didn't know. However, he had seen all of them through the security camera. The woman who controlled sound waves was in, as was the old man. D.C. didn't know what his power was. He just hoped it would be useful.

The posse was in a yet another large room, but time it was full of metal detectors, offices, and several checking points. It had been used to interrogate captured mutants. At the front of the room was a door large enough for three people to go through at the same time. That was the entrance. And the army the military had brought was on the other side.

It's almost time. D.C. walked to the front of the room and called for silence. The gloomy conversations slowly quieted. Six hundred sober faces looked at D.C. who stood just feet from the front door.

"In a few minutes the battle for freedom will begin. We will all rush out and try to disable as many units as we possibly can. It's estimated that there are about 9,000 troops out there. It looks as if we will immediately be overwhelmed, but that won't be the case. We have a few key players in here that will be able to protect you at all times. If at any time you need help of any kind, just start yelling for help. One of us will hear you and come help you." D.C. paused for a moment, then continued. "Also, if it is at all possible, only kill if you have too. I'm pretty sure that as soon as they see our powers, they'll run away. So, in short, this battle will be mainly demonstration and will turn to war only if we have to. Got that? OK, win the war!"

Once everybody was ready, D.C. turned around and blew the door and several yards of wall away. Everybody ran forward. The battle had begun. 

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOOOOOM!

BOOM!!!!!


	6. Chapter VI

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.

For details on Marie and her friend Jean-Pierre, please read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapter one through eight.

D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

"Whoa! Oh! Ah! Yikes! Watch out! Look out! Do you speak English?"

DC was having a hard time fighting. Sheila kept getting cornered by soldiers, and DC had had to rescue her five times already. There was a woman who kept charging and screaming in Spanish at the soldiers, with flames appearing in her hands. She looked like some sort of a dragon lady, and most of the soldiers that saw her turned and ran for their lives. But not all of them did, and so DC had to save her several times as well. When DC asked her what her name was very slowly, she said, "_Meg ferozdama,_" then sped off at the soldiers again.

Explosions were everywhere. Dirt and debris was flying. DC, who could defy gravity, flew around unleashing blasts that knocked planes out of the sky, turned over tanks, and sent soldiers flying several feet. He always paused, just to make sure everyone was all right.

Sheila revealed how smart she was just then. By running in circles around a unit she got a small tornado going. Storm noticed this. She flew over and whispered in Sheila's ear. Nodding, they both disappeared from view.

Cyclops kept aiming for the control building, and he was doing damage, but he kept getting sidetracked. 

The ground was shaking thanks to Jean-Pierre. Marie was hurling tanks fifty feet. Whenever soldiers charged a thick sheet of ice suddenly appeared and all went down. Multicolored sparks were flying like mad from Jubilee's hands, sending soldiers out for the count. Gambit had incredible aim with his cards. Almost every time he threw them the cards became lodged in the main guns of tanks and rifles alike. A few seconds later, and soldiers were running away from their disabled tanks or carrying their dismembered guns as they ran.

A mutant that looked like Hank except with no fur and with a tail kept appearing and disappearing in front of soldiers. He stole a great number of weapons, which made about half the army defenseless. Many were running away as they realized their guns and rocket launchers were missing.

A great pinnacle of smoke was rising from the battlefield, the result of several of several explosion caused somewhat by the military and a few mutants, but mostly by DC. For the first hour it just drifted about lazily, as if watching the battle far below. Suddenly, it shaped itself into a giant anvil shaped thunderhead. DC noticed Sheila doing something funny. She started to run in a circle about three hundred feet in diameter in an area free of mutants and soldiers. As she ran faster and faster, dust rising from behind started to form a small tornado. Suddenly the column of dust flew upward into the base of the thunderhead. Sheila broke away from it then, and fell to the ground, exhausted. DC flew to her side and tried to make her stand up, but when he saw what was happening to the small tornado he stopped trying and watched, openmouthed. The tornado's winds picked up speed, and it suddenly split apart. A dozen tornadoes branched off from it. DC realized Sheila had helped Storm make the tornado so that Storm wouldn't have to expend as much energy. The tornadoes swept over the battlefield, sucking up tanks, airplanes, and soldiers, but leaving mutants unharmed. Between the tornadoes a terrible wind blew. It twisted around the funnels, battered this way and that like a ball in a pinball machine. DC had an idea on how to make the twisters more powerful and terrifying. He made sure nobody was in any of the funnels, then he started an explosion in the base of each one.

Flames curled and rose. The funnels turned from dark brown to bright yellow. Swirling up into the base of the cloud, twelve tornadoes made entirely of yellow flame moved toward the rest of the army.

Panicky yells rose up, screams were heard, then a stampede of troops was pouring toward, around, and away from the control building, running for their lives.

Inside the building, it was chaos. Officers and privates, doctors and nurses, guards and janitors ran around. Paper and overturned furniture were scattered all over. Alarms were screaming, lights were flashing, and right in the middle of all, the general was screaming his head off, trying to be heard in the utter pandemonium. 

"Doctor, where are you? Somebody switch off the alarm! Tell unit G to circle around the mutants! Where the hell is troop 261? What is that?!?"

He looked out the windows facing the entrance to the mutant prison. Except he couldn't see the entrance because an explosion or something had completely covered it! _And it was coming this way!_

He grabbed a microphone lying on the ground, clicked it on, and yelled into it.

"THIS IS THE GENERAL! EVACUATE THE BUILDING, I REPEAT, EVACUATE THE BUILDING, NOW! THIS IS A CODE 10 EVACUATION! DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND RUN!"

Hearing the warning, everyone turned as one and ran like hell. The building was three stories tall, so everybody on the second and third story broke the windows and jumped. From outside the explosion could be discerned as a tornado but nobody cared because now they could see eleven more coming right after it.

All were F-5 tornadoes, which means flame was rotating at over 300 miles per hour. Each of the bases was over 200 meters wide and they suddenly merged into one giant super tornado. Now the base was contracting, shrinking from a mile wide to about twice the width of the control building. As the base shrank the wind speed increased. 350…400…500…600…700…1000…1500…2000…3000…4000…5000…6000…7000…_7600 mph!!!_

Now, a twister composed entirely of fire, with a wind velocity of ten times the speed of sound, was moving towards the control building. Needless to say, that is a very scary sight.

It was almost on top of the building now. The control building itself was an old abandoned wooden saloon. On the outside it looked like a rotting collapsing rat hole, but the military had fixed it to look that way so that nobody would guess that supercomputers and monitoring systems were concealed inside. Now the few shingles still clinging to the roof were being ripped off along with roof panels. When the fire twister was less then five feet from the building, both objects seemed to flicker for a second or two. Then they looked exactly the same as before, except for the fact that the building was being ripped apart.

The rotting strips of wood on the side facing the tornado were pried off by the ultrasonic wind and sucked into the funnel. This revealed the inside of the building. Desks, chairs, computers, insulation, TVs, cameras, vending machines and high tech gadgets flew through the holes in the walls and were consumed in the flames. The rest of the roof was torn off, and it orbited around the funnel a few times before entering the funnel several hundred feet above the building itself. Windows shattered, and the funnel finally touched the building.

Inside, a fierce wind was blowing through the broken windows, overturning furniture, and making makeshift wind tunnels in the halls. This caused a vacuum which sucked out doors, exposing rooms without windows to the winds. Even the carpet was pried up and torn off, joining the rest of the loose objects flying through the halls towards the funnel. As the vending machines tipped over, rolled, and collided with other objects, the glass fronts broke and added their contents to the melee. When the funnel touched the building, the flames expanded into it. A shock wave went before it, so the objects tumbling down the halls changed direction briefly before they were consumed.

In a room opposite the funnel, it was almost normal. The shutters had been closed over the windows, and the door was holding its own against the vacuum in the hall. This room contained two desks, which were orderly and not the slightest bit messy. Not even the wastepaper baskets had been over turned, and the only thing wrong was the awful roaring and bumps and thumps coming from the hall.

Suddenly, a computer monitor came flying through the wall, followed by a small couch. Then, expanding flames came bursting into the room, blowing the rest of the wall out. The computer and couch went careening out the windows, and the two desks would have joined them if they hadn't been burned to a crisp.

The flame tornado had covered nearly the whole structure, except the wall facing away from the prison entrance. Most of the outside paneling had been stripped away, revealing smoking insulation and solid flames consuming almost all of the rooms behind the walls. Several pieces of furniture had pierced the wall and were sent flying one hundred meters or more.

Now it was only the basic framework that was left. The new support system the military had built into the building to keep it from collapsing was brand new steel, and it was what was left of the building. The personal running away and looking back could discern it only because it glowed red against the yellow flame of the twister. Suddenly, when a screech and a groan heard even above the roar of the tornado, the steel framework tore from its foundation and tumbled out of the funnel. It rolled and tumbled around the funnel a few times like a hyperactive toddler around his mother. Then it slowly lifted off the ground and still rolling in midair, was sucked into the funnel.

The military personal meanwhile were making for the mining town about ¼ of a mile from the control building. Almost all of them had reached it, jumped into military caravans there, and high tailed it out of there, heading for Westchester. The last caravan waited for ten more stragglers. When they were loaded up, the driver happened to look into the review mirror, and nearly wet himself. The fire tornado had followed them to the old town, and was presently bearing down on the first structure, a broken down outhouse. 

A man with his pants around his ankles suddenly burst from the door, and ran as fast as he could for the truck, a very difficult thing to do in the middle of doing your business.

As soon as he had jumped into the back, the driver put the petal to the metal and drove down the dust road. A stinky odor reached his nostrils, but he was too busy looking behind him to care. To his immense relief, the twister suddenly dissipated into a column of black smoke, which rose slowly into the sky, disappearing into the jet black cloud that hovered above the area.

Back at the mine entrance, DC looked at control building, sitting completely unharmed in its proper position. Storm was standing next to him. He turned to her and said, "Isn't it amazing how real holograms look?"

THE STORY IS NOT OVER YET! DID YOU REALLY THINK YOUR SUFFERING WAS OVER?!?


	7. Chapter VII

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.

D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

"OK, what do we do now?" 

The question had been asked by Sheila. She was still panting slightly, and who could blame her? She had just helped start twelve F-5 tornadoes. All military personal had been blown out of the area. The only living things around where some trees, a few wild animals, and a couple thousand mutants.

They were all filing out of the prison complex, some of them cheering. The battle had been won, and most everybody was wondering what they should do.

"First, we take a look in the good old control building." DC started to walk toward it.

The whole building was pretty trashed up. When everybody inside it had panicked a lot of equipment had been destroyed. This however was no problem. It seemed all the important information had been saved in giant supercomputers located in the basement, where only a precious few were ever allowed. It was protected by an array of security systems, but somebody switched off the power generator and they all shut down.

"And besides," reasoned Sheila, "Who'd be alerted to our presence if the alarms did go off?"

However, the information itself was not very telling. There was nothing in the supercomputers that DC didn't know and hadn't told everybody else. The main reason they had bothered at all to look for these computers was to find the location of the other three mutant prison camps. The info DC had gave only a vague description of where they were, one near Salt Lake City, one near Phoenix, and the last near Denver. Even these blurry descriptions confused DC, Professor X, and pretty much everybody else. Why were they so close together? Why is were they less then 500 miles from each other and this one on the other side of the country?

"Perhaps the military gave these vague descriptions in order to throw us off if we ever escaped."

"Hmm. That is a possibility Hank."

"I think it's more then a possibility Professor. He's most likely right. Why would this prison complex need to know the exact position of the other complexes? They're too smart for that. They knew that if we got out, at least some of the escapees would try to find the other complexes."

DC looked thoughtfully at Sheila.

"But how would they know someone like me would get into their computer systems and find out about the other complexes?"

"The military had no idea what sort of powers the mutants they captured would have. Therefore they reasoned that if the prisoners somehow did get out, they should throw them off the trail with false information. That's why I think Hank's suggestion is most likely right."

"And if Hank and Sheila are right, it could take weeks or even months to locate the other complexes."

"How would we find them?"

"Spy satellites?"

"I don't know, sounds intense. Maybe DC could-!"

"Look, we can worry about this a little later. Right now we have a couple thousand people out there who are fugitives from the law and have no idea where to go. I'd say it's time we start figuring out what to do with them before we start trying to free a few thousand more mutants."

The next day, it was all settled. DC, Marie, Jean-Pierre, and Storm would destroy the control building and the prison complex. Everybody else would head north until a power line was found, then DC would transfer them all into Canada and then they could go wherever they wanted. Professor X volunteered to take all the children and try to reunite them with their parents or whatever, which turned out to be a very hard thing to do as there were about 600 of them, ranging from six to eighteen. Most would call their parents in Canada and arrange to meet with them somewhere there. All the rest would be enrolling in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. About half of the children wanted to go to directly to the school, so the its membership shot from 98 to 437.

A few kids gasped when they saw DC, and he knew exactly why.

Everybody started to trudge north. A few fights had broken out over what should be done, with ideas ranging from mass suicide to attacking Westchester. But all of them had been stopped as gently as possible, so the community of mutants started their journey with just two new smoking craters.

When DC blew up the main supports of the prison complex and Jean-Pierre created a small earthquake, the ground for hundreds of meters around sank over one hundred feet. It reminded DC of part in that Jackie Chan movie "Operation Condor" (or something like that) when a huge underground military base in the Sahara blows up and the sand dunes caved in.

After about three hours of climbing up the slope of the mountain where the prison complex was located, someone found high voltage power lines that crossed the mountain. DC began sending people through 100 at a time. It would take a little while.

After about five hours, the last of the adults were through and on their way to Canada. DC had sent everybody to different cities in Canada, ranging from Montreal, Quebec to Teshin, Yukon Territory. He thought it would alarm the Canadians if 1400 people suddenly started appearing out of a street lamp in one location. Now, only the children were left.

"The mansion I told you about in the first chapter, I mean, that night before we got captured is in the outskirts of Regina, Saskatchewan."

"All right Professor, but are you sure there's enough room for 600 kids?"

"DC, you haven't seen this mansion yet."

"Right."

And off they went. DC scanned the area making sure nobody was being left behind. Then he disappeared into the power line. But instead of going north, he turned south. He had an idea on how to get the exact locations of the last three complexes. He headed for the mansion in Westchester. He had to get something from there. Something he needed if he were to step foot in New York City ever again.

The old mansion was swarming with cops. If DC had had to go out of the power lines to get it, he would have been caught immediately. 

But he didn't. A policewoman was gathering evidence in his former room. When her back was turned Exhibit G-28 suddenly vanished into thin air.

It was a headband. It had tiny beads on the thin wire that was arranged in this order: blue, green, red, yellow, white, gray, and black. At the center, with two sapphires on each side, was a star made from a blue type of diamond, a very rare form.

DC came out under the Manhattan approach to the Brooklyn Bridge. He looked around for a while, then found a manhole covering. It had a star on it that looked exactly like the one on DC's headband. He paused a moment, made sure no one was around, and slipped the priceless headband on his head like a tiara. The blue diamond star came to rest on the center of his forehead.

He slipped the manhole covering off, and climbed down the ladder inside. When his feet hit the ground, he reached for the wall, searching for a switch. When he found it and clicked it on, pale blue lights came on, lighting up the tunnel. He had put the manhole covering back on, so no natural daylight came from above. The tunnel was about the size of a normal subway tunnel that holds only one train at a time. He set off down it.

At the first turn he bumped into a girl with brown hair who was about 16 and wearing a tight shirt and jean shorts. She wore a headband like his except it had no blue or green beads on it, and a red square rested in the center of her forehead.

"Hey! Watch it buddy, or I'll have you…"

She looked up at his forehead and gasped. She snapped to attention and lowered her head.

"I'm so sorry blue ultimate. I did not mean what I said."

She looked at the ground as she spoke, and DC saw drops of sweat drip off her face and hit her white sneakers.

"It's all right red champion."

She looked up with a surprised look in her eyes.

"You will not be downgraded for a simple mistake like this. Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"To guard the entrance. All the greens are occupied right now and they've started to ask reds to do some of their work."

"Why is there nobody there right now?"

"The green who was there had to run off somewhere. He sent a black to get me."

"Well, go along then. If I hear you were doing a good job at a green's job I will seriously consider upgrading you."

She started walked around the corner without looking back at him, but he heard her whoop of joy when she was a little further down.

He continued along, seeing some people, mainly kids, pass him, looking at his blue star and lowering their heads as he went by, then started whispering if a friend was with them. They were all on patrol. After about thirty minutes of walking, some uphill, some downhill, the tunnel suddenly opened up to reveal an abandoned subway station built 60 years ago. It was filled with chattering people, all wearing headbands like DC's but with varying color. DC saw at once there were no ultimates in the room, for everyone hushed when they saw the blue glittering diamond on his forehead. As he walked forward, they all shrank back, gaping at him. 

Newcomers had only black beads on their headbands, with a straight black line on their foreheads. An upgrade from that was gray and black beads, with a gray rectangle. Upgrade from that, white was added with an octagon. Then yellow was added with a hexagon, then red added with a square, then green with a triangle, and finally blue, the highest level, with the star, which was the only one made from gems. Few people ever made it above red.

DC walked to the former ticket booth, which had been converted to the check in. The glass window was missing. 

A girl inside, maybe 19, looked up at him from a computer. She was a green, and this job was part of her program of upgrading to blue. Everyone who made it to green eventually became a blue. Each green was given an important job. If they did it perfectly for six months, they received the headbands with the star on it.

She immediately recognized him, and stood up quickly, standing to attention and saluting him.

"Welcome back Aquarius. There are currently two blue ultimates in the lounge, Intelligence and Carpathia."

"Thank you Amazon. Last time I saw you, you were only a yellow."

"I got upgraded soon after you disappeared. I saved a blue from the police and that's how I made it to green. Instead of six months I only had to complete four months at this job. I have only one week to go."

"Congratulations Amazon! I look forward to you joining the blues."

"Thank you Aquarius."

DC gave her an honor shake. She looked very pleased at this.

DC walked around to the back of the check in, where some dark stairs led to some double doors. Just before he went down he saw everybody clamoring over to the check in, asking Amazon what it was like being treated like an equal by a blue.

He passed through the doors, into a lounge that had a HDTV, pool table, bar, and two supercomputers. Two other people were there, watching something on the TV. One of them turned, and when DC saw it was the guy he was looking for, walked forward and stopped by the couch facing the TV.

"Aquarius! I haven't seen you for so long!"

"I had to clear out of town for a while Intelligence. I was hoping you could help me."

"Anything for you buddy."

"You hear about the MRA being passed?"

"Yeah. Everybody in the gang had to take shelter up there in the common room. Did you see them all? They keep on coming. Last time I heard, there were about 900 members up there. But a couple hundred members are missing. All the blues got together and when you didn't show up we figured you'd been captured because we knew as soon as you heard about it you'd come running back here to help with the evacuation.."

"Yeah, I was captured. They were holding every mutant in fifteen states in this prison complex, but we all escaped and everybody that was there is in Canada now. You know that Xavier guy we learned about just before I disappeared? The one we thought was merely a rumor?"

"Yeah."

"He's real. I've been staying at his school for mutants."

"Finally! Someone to work with! Do you think he'd consent to helping us set up a smuggling operation to get all our members out of the US? We're having trouble getting members out of New York, and the blues in Washington, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, LA and San Diego called for help yesterday.

"I'm more then sure he'll want to help. But before we do that, I need to tell you something else. There are three more prison complexes where they're holding mutants. I need you to find out where they are."

"No problem. I've got a lot more connections then I did when you hightailed it out of town. By this time tomorrow, I'll be able to tell you where they are down to the square nanometer."

Hahahahahahahaha! I bet you never thought I would take this route! Bwahahahahahahahaha!!! For those who don't know, a namometer is a billionth of a meter.


	8. Chapter VIII

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.

D.C. is a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

Intelligence made about thirty phone calls, then DC was free to use the phone. He explored the world wide phone system until he found the mansion in Canada. It was busy, so DC had to wait about forty minutes until the line was clear. When whoever it was hung up, DC quickly dialed.

"Hello?"

A rather irritated voice of a boy answered.

"Is Professor Xavier there?"

"Yes."

"May I speak to him?"

"How do I know you can be trusted?"

DC thought the voice sounded familiar, so he decided to take a chance.

"Do the words _Vrangelya, Okhotsk, Asuncion, El Oueda, Oaxaca _mean anything to you?"

He heard a gasp and a loud thud. The boy had dropped the phone. Then he heard it being hastily picked up.

"I'll get him right away."

DC heard running feet, indistinct voices, and then the Professor's voice.

"Yes? Who is this?"

"It's DC."

"DC! Where have you been? I was about to send the team out in the Blackbird to go and find you!"

"Later. I just called to tell you that I'm trying to find the locations of the prison complexes now. I'll call you as soon as the results are in. Bye."

"Wait!"  
_click_

"Aquarius, could you come over here please? All the blues are here, and we have to start a meeting."

"I'm coming."

The phone was in an old fashioned phone booth built into the wall with a sliding door. DC slid the door open and walked out into the lounge. It was full of people, ages ranging from twelve to thirty. The lounge had a big table set up in the middle, where all one hundred of the blues of Manhattan sat. A green was here as well, a boy, as stenographer. He sat with a brand new laptop on the card table in front of him, tucked into a corner.

"Aquarius, if you would."

DC raised a hologram of the planet in the middle of the round table. It showed all the countries of the world, their capitols, and their major cities. Intelligence was going to be the main speaker at this meeting.

"I called this meeting because Aquarius, one of our most important blue has returned. He has learned a new skill which will be most useful in this meeting.

"As you all know, the United States has made the Mutant Registration Act law. We are all on enemy ground as we speak. The blues in Washington DC, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, LA and San Diego have called for help. San Diego is being combed by the cops and military to make sure mutants don't try to get to Mexico, so the members there are in the most danger. 

"The members in other countries around the world are also wondering what they can do for the evacuation. Jovian, Kitrinae, and Friar have determined Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Iceland and Switzerland to be the safest countries for members to go. Members in Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Reykjavik, Bern, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Yokohama are prepared to receive as many as 1000 members per city, which is more then enough. But they are also wondering which city will be the new capitol, since we cannot use New York anymore."

As Intelligence named the countries and cities, they were highlighted on the globe hologram. Each was labeled, and then the rest of the world disappeared and only the highlighted countries remained. Information about the members in each country appeared next to the floating countries.

The blues negotiated, planned, suggested new capitols, and finally voted. It turned out to be a tie between Tokyo, Sydney, and Bern. A tie breaker was held, and surprisingly Bern, Switzerland was going to be the new capitol of the OMA.

"OK, call Bern and tell them to prepare their headquarters. Half of the blues will go there to plan the evacuation. The blues that remain here will supervise. We still have to figure out what to do about the members in the other cities in the US, and now that we have decided about this matter, we will turn our attention to that."

A couple of hours later, it was all settled. It would be a risky operation but everyone was sure it would work out. It involved a number of stopping points with hundreds of mutant supporters. Abandoned meeting halls in cities deemed to dangerous for members would be reopened briefly for the evacuation. It could be compared to the Underground Railroad, with members posing as slaves escaping to freedom. Except nobody was trying to get to Canada. Everybody was headed for Oklahoma City.

"Hello."

"May I speak to Professor X please?"

"Right away."

"DC?"

"Yes?"

"_Where are you?_"

"Relax. I'm in New York. Listen, I got to tell you something I've kept from you for a long time. It's about something called the Outcast Mutant Alliance..."

After two and a half hours, DC hung up the phone and got out of the phone booth. He was about to tell Intelligence what the Professor had said when the girl from the check in came bursting into the room.

"A strange man just wandered into the common room! We have captured him, but we don't know what to do with him!"

DC ran outside, up the stairs and into the common room, followed by Intelligence, Carpathia, Kitrinae, and the green. They were greeted by chaos.

"He disappeared! He disappeared! He disappeared! He disappeared!"

Several people were screaming that over and over. Others were trying to find him, swarming into doors that led from the abandoned subway stations. Suddenly a yell was heard from the generator room.

"He's in here! What the- What are you doing?!?"

Everybody had rushed over to the generator room, where blue smoke came billowing out. DC sensed an energy mass coming out of the room and headed for the exit that led to the subway tunnel.

"Oh no you don't!"

DC forced the energy mass toward the floor. It struggled against his will, but it couldn't win against supreme ruler of energy and motion. It stopped struggling, and a young man with blue skin, a tail, and yellow eyes suddenly on the floor, staggering slightly.

There was an outcry, and everybody in the room rushed towards him except the blues and greens.

"STOP!!!"

DC's voice, amplified by his powers, caused dust to fall from the ceiling. Everybody stopped so suddenly they all pitched forward on their faces. They tried to cover their ears and break their fall at the same time, but most of them failed.

DC walked slowly toward the strange looking man. He eyed him suspiciously, and looked toward the exit.

"You cannot escape. I've created an energy field around this area. Nobody can leave without being seen. Who are you? What do you want with us?"

"My name's Nightcrawler. I came here because I was being chased by the police. I ran down into the subway tunnels, and I came this way because I heard voices."

"Are the police following you?"

"I don't know. They're probably combing the subway systems now."

"Then you have brought trouble on all of us."

DC turned away from the man named Nightcrawler. He spoke to Intelligence.

"Have the police already searched the subway systems?"

"No. That has us worried."

"Well, now they will for certain. They'll think that a mutant in the subway is an H-bomb in the subway. This is unfortunate. We will have to speed the evacuation in the whole country."

"Why the whole country?"

"Because if they discover mutants underground here, they'll look underground everywhere. We have to leave. Everybody. Now."

Intelligence nodded. 

"Carpathia, call the blues in the other cities. Tell them to expect DC within an hour. Tell Oklahoma City that they can expect fifteen thousand people in that same time frame. Oh, and tell them that in exactly one hour, the OMA's capitol will officially be Bern. Tell them to pass that own to the foreign blues. Kitrinae, work on who goes where. DC, you can start moving people to Oklahoma City as soon as you like. I'll go tell the blues here what's happening. Agreed?"

"Would it be OK if I start moving them as soon as Carpathia calls Oklahoma City?"

"I said as soon as you like."

"Carpathia, let's go do that right now."

"Right. But what about Nightcrawler?"

"Oh please let me go with you! I have nowhere else to go!"

"I was planning on allowing you to go with us. But for forcing this evacuation, you will be the last one in the USA to go."

Carpathia was a fourteen year old girl. She had rescued seventeen blacks, two yellows, and a green from a mob when she was twelve, and so had become the youngest blue in OMA history. She was smart and very capable of her class, and rarely showed any strain from her job. She had red hair and blue eyes, and at the moment was wearing a white T-shirt with a blue dragon on the back and blue jeans. 

"Hello Oklahoma? Slight change of plan. We had an intruder who's being chased by the police, and our location is jeopardized. I need you to prepare to receive about fifteen thousand members of every class within the next hour. Also, in exactly one hour the OMA's capitol will be officially moved to Bern, Switzerland. Call the other cities, US and foreign, and pass that info on. OK? OK. The first members will be coming through immediately."

As soon as DC heard Carpathia tell them about the evacuation, he ran back up to the common room where all of the members were hastily packing bags, calling to each other and finding friends.

"Whoever is ready to go please step over the check in."

As people trooped over DC sent them on their merry way through the power system. The biggest evacuation in the 20 year history of OMA had begun.


	9. Chapter IX

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.

D.C. is a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.

DC had gone to every site the OMA had in New York, and every member had been evacuated to Oklahoma City. The only mutant DC knew of that was still in New York was that strange guy with blue skin, yellow eyes, and a tail. He had a German (Or was it an Austrian?) accent, and he had the ability to appear and disappear in a giant blue cloud that smelled of brimstone for some odd reason. DC had told him to stay in the lounge and watch TV until he came back.

"_Ja, ja, ja_, I will stay unless the police come. You had better come back soon."

"Right. See ya later."

And he had gone to Washington. The members there were hiding in abandoned Metro tunnels. There were no unused subway stations, so the people there just walking around, and hardly any meetings were ever held because it was hard to get some many people together without a permanent headquarters. This however was an emergency, and a special effort had been taken to get every single member into a temporary headquarters. It was slightly easier to evacuate Washington then it was New York because every member was in just one location.

Washington taken care of, DC moved on to Salt Lake. 

Salt Lake City didn't have a subway system. Members had to go down into the stinky sewers into an old maintenance room. When DC came out, he wrinkled his nose. Then he converted all the air into energy that he sent into the local power grid. This created a complete vacuum, which had never before been achieved on Earth. It only lasted for a split second however. All anybody noticed was the whole room suddenly turn bright blue, then the light faded and a great whoosh was heard as air rushed in through a ventilation duct installed to control the smell but before now had never been effective. Then Salt Lake City was made OMA-free and DC proceeded to Los Angeles.

Like New York and Washington DC, Los Angeles had a subway system. But this subway system was like Washington's. No forgotten subway stations, so members just wandered the tunnels. But they had followed a similar plan as the members in Washington, except for the fact that there were several meeting places.

The United States was almost free of the OMA without ever knowing it had played host to it. Oklahoma City's population had increased by several thousand, and it didn't know it. All everyone had to do was wait for DC to come back to transport them to Canada and freedom. But DC had one more thing to do.

"Tell them not to worry. I have a little errand to run." said DC to a little girl before she disappeared. DC smiled. For delivering such a message from one blue to another would mean an instant upgrade for the girl. 

DC went into the phone lines and searched the Internet. Hmm. Casrey, Casrey, Casrey, ah, here we are! Now, for Benjamin and Martha… here we go…Pine Valley, Utah…

Pine Valley is a little community in southwest Utah. It's a very small town, lucky even to have a name. It becomes deserted every winter because it is way up high in the mountains and gets a lot of snow. And this small, insignificant and peaceful town was where a being made up of 500 trillion volts of energy was headed to see his family.

Here we are. This is the right address. DC looked at the small cabin. He heaved a big sigh. Then he pushed open the gate and walked up the path leading to the front door. He passed a small lawn and a large garden. DC smiled, remembering how his mother loved gardening. Then he was standing by the door. Then stopped, thought about it, then with resolved determination, he pushed the doorbell. 

"Yes? What is the purpose of your visit?"

DC just stared at his mom. The years have aged her a bit, and her blonde hair was graying. She looked with distaste at his shoulder length blue hair. He remembered how she disliked people who dyed their hair, pierced their bodies and the like.

"Mom, you don't recognize me, do you?"

But she seemed to recognize his voice. She clutched the door tightly, fear clouding her eyes.

"You've come back. Your father and I told you not to come back, ever, and you did. Why?"

"To say goodbye."

Surprise sprung on her face.

"To say goodbye? Why?"

"I'm leaving the country. I might never be able to come back, so this was my last chance to finally see you again."

She opened her mouth to say something, then something struck her mind. She seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly his mother smiled. Relief was in her eyes.

"Suddenly I'm very glad you came back. Now you can take Dean."

"What? Take Dean? Why?"

"Because he's one of you. He's been driving me crazy because of his…his…abnormality."

She said the last word with contempt and distaste.

"I want you to take him. Birds of a feather should flock together. I'll go tell him to get packed."

With that she slammed the door in his face. He heard her yelling at someone, someone yelling back, his mom yelled again, and suddenly he heard running feet and the door burst opening, and a blur latched itself on DC's middle.

A few minutes later, DC and his little(?) brother Sean were walking down the road towards the nearest power line.

Dean had grown up. He was almost as tall as DC, and he was 6' 3", so he thought Dean had done a good job of growing. Dean had a muscular build, dark, tanned skin, and an easy smile. But the greatest shock for DC was the fact that Dean had purple hair with matching eyes. But unlike DC, Dean had it cut short, like the average boy.

He was staring at DC, and blabbering away.

"IcantbelieveyourehereIvewantedtoseeyouforsolongMomandDadhavebeenhorriblegeezyouvechangedwherehaveyoubeenhaveyoumetanycutechickshowarewegoingtogetoutofthecountry?"

"Calm down and take a breath little one. It has been a long time hasn't it?"

Dean took several deep breaths then started talking normally.

"The last time I saw you, you were twelve and I was nine. I hadn't discovered my powers yet, and I had no idea what mutants were. Things sure have changed, haven't they? You'll be twenty-one, right?"

"Yeah. That would make you eighteen?"

"Uh-huh. So where have you been all this time? Why haven't you been writing me?"

"After that talk I had with mom and dad before I left, I knew any mail coming from me would've been ripped up and burned."

"I guess so."

"So, what's your power?"

"I can control graviton particles. I could make you as heavy as an elephant or I could reverse your gravitational polarity and send you flying up into space."

"I doubt you could. My power is being able to control all forms of energy, including gravity. I can fly because of that. Can you?"

"Can I?"

And just to prove it, Dean started hovering a couple of inches above the ground.

"Stop that before somebody sees. We're fugitives, remember that. Didn't anybody tell you about the MRA being passed?"

"I know, I know. By the way, how are we going to get my stuff out of the country? Do you have a car?"

All this time both of them had been carrying two suitcases each. All were full of clothes and treasured possessions. 

"You see that power line?"

"Yeah."  
"Every wonder what the inside looks like?"

"You mean-"

"We're going to stop in Oklahoma City to pick up some friends of mine. We'll be going to Canada, ok?"

"Wait!"

A few seconds later, they popped into an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Oklahoma City. It was full of people at the moment, who were whispering to each other because they had all been warned to be quiet. The warehouse was supposed to be condemned and dangerous, and any passerby would certainly call the police if he or she heard voices inside. Dean looked around. 

"You have a lot of friends."

"Dean, I'd like to welcome you to the temporary headquarters of the Outcast Mutant Alliance. Here's your headband."

And a headband with all black beads and a black line in the middle appeared out of nowhere in DC's hand. Dean's eyes widened in shock.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, my powers include being able to change energy into matter and vice versa."

Dean nodded, took the headband and put it on his head. DC reached over and adjusted it so that the black line rested on Dean's forehead.

"Since you're new, you have to be in the lowest class, the Black Beginners. If you are a good member and do everything a blue tells you to do, you can upgrade to the next level. Your next level is gray, then white, then yellow, then red, green, and finally the highest class, Blue Ultimate. It's very difficult to get to green, but if you do then you're guaranteed to be a blue."

"What are you?"

DC took out his headband. When Dean saw the blue diamond in the shape of a star he whistled softly.

"I'm a blue. I'm also a very respected member of the OMA. I'm known as Aquarius. Each member makes up a name for him or herself. I need to take you to the check-in to get yours."

So they waded through the crowd of people. Eventually they got to the check-in, and a green boy DC didn't know looked up from the computer.

"This is a new member. He needs a name."

"OK. Real name?"

"Dean Casrey."

"OMA name?"

Dean thought hard.

"How about…Rama?"

"That name has not been taken. Welcome to the OMA, Rama. May you proceed to Blue Ultimate."

The green saluted Dean, and so did everyone within earshot. Then the green sat down, and accessed something on the computer. DC turned to Dean.

"You go and make some friends. It's not encouraged, but you'll only be able to speak to blacks for a little while. Everyone above black considers themselves too important to speak to a new black, but once everyone gets to know you everybody can speak and be spoken to. I've got to go meet the other blues. See you later little brother. Where's the lounge?"

The green pointed to DC's right.

"Through that door, down the hall, and to the left."

"Thank you."

DC turned and walked through the doors. He looked through the small window in it and smiled when the crowd engulfed Dean. DC had purposefully said "little brother" because everyone wanted to associate with a blue's relative. But it was unknown to all of them, including the greens, that when the blues considered a person for an upgrade, anyone that was friends or were related to that person was banned from the council. DC would not be able to help Dean advance.

The green's directions were accurate to a T. DC walked into the lounge, and it was very, very crowded. 

"Hey! It's Aquarius!" somebody yelled. Everyone turned and saluted. Then the murmur of conversation rose again. 

DC wormed his way over to Intelligence, who was waiting in line for a drink.

"Where've you been?"

"I wanted to say goodbye to my family 'cause it would be my last chance, but somehow I managed to pick up my little brother Dean."

"That's cool, man. Did you enter him into the OMA?"

"Oh course I did."

"How long has it been since you last saw him?"

"About nine years."

"Whoa. Talk about long time, no see."

"Yeah. Anyway, did you find out about the other prison complexes?"

"Indeed. I just got calls from all my connections. They all said the same thing. There are not three other complexes, there's only one more other then the one you got stuck in."

"Well, that'll make thing easier."

"Not really. Every since you guys escaped, the military's been upgrading it. Fixing it up, you know what I'm saying? The complex is more then ten times more secure then Fort Knox."

"Really? Where is it?"

"It's on Kahoolawe Island."

"What? I thought the military used it for target practice!"

"Not anymore. The whole island is covered with the prison. The military's had a rough time keeping it from the public. You know about the _Virgo_, don't you?"

"That cruise ship that went down off the northern coast of Maui? Sure."

"It didn't go down off northern Maui, it went down off southern Kahoolawe. It went too close to the island and a military submarine was ordered to torpedo it. The military forced the cruise company that owned _Virgo _to say it was near Maui, and that an illegal substance onboard caused the explosion."

"And the company got sued and went bankrupt because of it."

"Yep."

"Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Nope, I figured you should be the first one to know about it."

"Has a meeting been called?"

"No, we thought that as soon as you got here, you could take us all to Canada and then have a meeting."

"I guess that's safer."

"We gonna tell everybody about the prison?"

"Yes. I'd better go up and start moving people right-"

Suddenly the lights went out, the conversation stopped cold, and a bullhorn outside was heard.

"All right mutants! This is the police! We know that you're in there! Come out with your hands up!"

DC tried the electrical system. Dead. Then the phones. Dead. They were all dead.

"Um. Problem."

"What is it?"

"I can't get us out!"


	10. Chapter X

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.

D.C. and Dean characters I invented. For details on DC, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five. For info on Dean, see "Mutant Roundup: Chapter Nine."

"Situation: We are trapped in an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Oklahoma City, which happens to be in the center of the state of Oklahoma. The authorities have cut the power and phone lines, so our mode of transportation cannot get us out of here. Plus, we have 12,000 mutants with us aged 10-30. We need a new plan. Any volunteers?"

Nobody, not a single person in the meeting room, raised their hand. The whole speech has been spoken by a boy named Juan at the head of the enormous table set up in the large underground room. DC sat next to him, head in his hands, thinking. He'd been trying to think up a solution for three hours, which hadn't been easy with that stupid policeman outside yelling through a bullhorn outside. His voice was cracking at all, which was the most ironic part. Then somebody at the table spoke up.

"All I can think of is what they're going to do to us if we surrender. If Aquarius' account is correct, and I have no doubt that it is, then we're looking at unfair imprisonment on some island right next to Paradise. We're all being treated like some sort of alien germ!"

Alien germ. That was a very good analogy. In spite of himself, DC flipped mentally through all the alien movies he had seen.

_Mars Attacks!, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Aliens, Independence Day…_Wait a minute…_Independence Day_…

"I've got an idea."

Everybody started and looked at him.

"Yes Aquarius? What is it?"

"Well, it included turning every member here into light except for me and my little brother and hyper-charging a cell phone or radio. Also, if you all agree, we could probably kill two birds with one stone."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, it's like this…"

DC looked through the crowd of frightened members, searching for his brother. But all the faces looked the same, scared. The warehouse was as long as a football field, and that was a lot of area to search. Finally he spotted Dean, hanging out with a group of blacks.

"Hey Dean! Come over here!"

Dean said something to his new friends then walked over.

"What do you want?"

"When you said you could control graviton particles, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you made yourself float in midair, right?"

"Right."

"Think you could do the same for an spaceship?"

The police outside were as tense as a violin string in Death Valley. They had no idea how many mutants were in there, if they'd fight back, if they'd come quietly, whether they'd have to be taken by force… but this was too much. Reports had come in about an unexplained radar blip. Usually this turned out to be a small meteor or something like that, but small meteors are not twenty miles wide. But this blip was, and it was headed for Oklahoma City.

It had been detected over the Caribbean, where it went north over the Bahamas. It then made a beeline for Oklahoma City, passing over Florida along the way. Panic erupted in Disney World when it passed directly over it, where they were just celebrating the opening of a new ride that dealt with aliens. The bright light passed into Alabama, then Mississippi and Arkansas. Finally it reached Oklahoma two hours after first appearing on radar screens, trailing behind it a smoke trail two hundred miles long. The areas directly below the light experienced power outages, which could only be explained by the fact that something was draining the system. The outages were still going even after the light had left the area. When it reached the border between Oklahoma and Arkansas, the bright yellow light faded, revealing a dark hull. It was quickly pointed out that it looked almost exactly like the spacecraft from _ID4_, with a few key differences. It didn't have the funny projection thing on the front. In the middle of the bottom, something that looked like a stinger hung down, with eight lines leading away from it to the edges, like the rays of a sun drawn by a child. It was slowly rotating clockwise, and several thousand lights were scattered across the surface.

The press was having a field day, trying to guess where it was going. When it became clear that it was heading straight for Oklahoma City, the authorities immediately ordered an evacuation. But since they had not figured out where it was going until it had passed into Oklahoma, they only had ten minutes to evacuate the third largest town in area in the US. There are plenty of spaces to hide in such a big city. The evacuation didn't work out too well. 

Riots, panicking residents, looters, a city's worst nightmares. People began gathering on the rooftops of the downtown skyscrapers. The spacecraft could already be seen coming over the horizon. Several traffic accidents occurred, the streets clogged, people were screaming. It was a real life _ID4_, except it was happening in a moderate city.

The police surrounding the warehouse had not been dispatched to help with the evacuation. If anything, more policemen had been sent to the site. But almost no one was watching the warehouse. Everybody was looking towards the other side of town. The edge of the spacecraft was above the edge of town.

As the giant spacecraft creeped in over the city, the people underneth it silenced as the electricity cut out. Gradually all noise in the city stopped. No lights were on, for the city's power was drained, even the area which the spacecraft had not passed over yet. It was almost midnight, so the city was very dark. Everybody was looking towards downtown. The stinger was about ten feet long. On its journey across half a continent, the spacecraft had always stayed above five hundred feet. But now it lowered. And the stinger came within twenty feet of the roof of the city's tallest building, which was 36 stories tall. It stopped, hovering over that building, then starting moving again. 

Suddenly the policemen guarding the warehouse realized where it was headed. Some of them backed away, turned around and ran. As the spacecraft approached, the lights in the surrounding oil fields, warehouses, and streets went out, plunging the area into darkness. Even the lights inside the cars darkened. And the spacecraft hovered over the warehouse, its stinger directly above it. Everyone was silent. Nobody breathed.

Suddenly, white lights appeared at the ends of the eight lines that lead to the stinger. The lights came rapidly in, converging on the stinger, and disappeared into its base. And a blue shaft of light came out of the tip and connected with the warehouse. All the windows in the warehouse suddenly shattered. And the lights in Oklahoma City suddenly blazed, bathing the city in light. But they all promptly blacked out again, starting at the edges and focusing in on the warehouse. The shaft of white light suddenly turned blue, and it was as if water was being sucked up through a clear tube. The electricity of Oklahoma City was being sucked up like a straw into the alien spacecraft. Then, the pillar of light turned black, then gray, then white, yellow, red, green. Then, when it turned blue again, the warehouse blew up.

A giant fireball engulfed the warehouse. The police perimeter was 100 yards away, but even this wasn't enough. The sphere of flame expanded far beyond that, destroying ten more warehouses the same size of the original before it finally lifted off the ground. When it came to within 10 yards of the spaceship, the explosion suddenly flattened out as if something was blocking it. Before it could spread out to the edges the yellow flames had turned to black smoke.

Then the spaceship moved on, heading west. The officers were never seen…for two days, then they were all found lost in the sewer.

The spaceship headed due west. It proceeded over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. It was now above the Pacific Ocean, four hours after leaving Oklahoma. Then it abruptly turned south, heading straight for Hawaii.

People who hated mutants couldn't have been happier. "Even the aliens are with us!" It was a sickening sight in every city in the US and beyond, giant crowds of people holding up scarecrows suspended by sticks that represented mutants. 

The spacecraft meanwhile had reached the island of Hawaii. It hovered over Hilo for a time, then moved on towards Maui. It passed over that island without stopping, went over Molokai and was presently over Oahu. It was right above Honolulu, threatening to blow up a hotel with twin towers. But it didn't. Instead it did a U-turn back over Molokai and headed back to Maui. But just before it reached there, it turned south. By this time it was being followed by a parade of boats. Coast Guard, Navy, alien enthusiasts, anti-mutant protesters, pro-mutant protesters, and a motorboat with an escaped mental patient in it, who kept standing up in his boat to yell and shake his fist at the spaceship and do obscene gestures. People in other boats tried to get near to him, but he had a shotgun.

The military was getting nervous. The spaceship was heading right for Kahoolawe, being closely followed by civilians. They ordered the Navy and Coast Guard to stop the private boats. But most of the civilians refused to stop, and just went around the blockade the Navy was trying to organize. They were in sight of Kahoolawe. 

"What's that?"

"Beats me."

"Looks like a prison."

"Why would a prison be on a firing range?"

"Beats me."

"Do you suppose the military tried to stop us from coming because of that?"

"Beats me."

"Are you capable of saying anything besides 'Beats me'?"

"Beats me."

The military was getting very fidgety when it heard the boats' captains talking to each other via radio. The facility on the island was capable of holding the mutants automatically, and the prison staff was being evacuated. But not fast enough. The spacecraft was already there.


	11. Chapter XI

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.

D.C. and Dean characters I invented. For details on DC, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five. For info on Dean, see "Mutant Roundup: Chapter Nine."

"The alien spaceship is now almost exactly over the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe. That island was thought to be deserted and being used as target practice by the military, until what looked like a prison was seen by several small boats following the UFO. Our reporter Bob Nitro is there now, Bob?"

"Shirley, it is a circus out here! Hundreds of small motorboats, houseboats, rowboats, and even a few cruise liners. The Navy is trying to set up a blockade around Kahoolawe but that effort is useless. There are too many small boats around that could get sucked under any bigger ship. In addition, the people here and around the world are demanding why there is a prison here. Also, a fishing boat's sonar has found something laying on the ocean bottom, something that looks like a large cruise liner."

"You said there were other cruise liners there. Which ones?"

"Well, the sister ship of the _Virgo, _the _Gemini_ is here. If you'll recall, _Virgo_ sank off the northern coast of Maui a few years ago. The _Gemini _was sold to Walt Disney Corporations and became part of their cruise line. Other liners include the _Potomac, _the _Asterisk, _and the _Hiroshima_ all the way from Japan."

"Bob, what is the UFO doing at this time?"

"It is hovering over the prison, slowly rotating clockwise. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was preparing to do something, though I can't imagine what. The so-called stinger is about thirty feet above the roof of the tallest watchtower."

"Thanks Bob. Now here we have animation of what the prison looks like.

"The island of Kahoolawe is shaped roughly like a coffin. It had an extinct volcano 1477 feet high which is now gone. The prison itself is surrounded by a wall that follows the outline of the island that is about fifty feet high. After that, a wall sixty feet high follows the contours of the outer wall and so on, with each wall ten feet higher then the last and each is spaced thirty yards or so. All the walls have watchtowers spaced every fifty yards. The final wall is a really just a giant watchtower in the exact center of the island. It is about 550 feet tall, just a little shorter then the Washington Monument. This tower is what the UFO is hovering above. Just a moment, I've just been handed this…A new and shocking factor has just developed in this story. The liner seen by the fishing boat's sonar has been identified. Bob Nitro has more."

"People are yelling and talking to each other in confusion. A private salvage crew was called out to identify the sunken ship. When the result came in one of the crew members blurted it out on the radio. It is the _Virgo_, which was supposed to have sunk hundreds of miles from here. The people are demanding answers, and the military is rumored to have played a part in the sinking. Military official say that-wait a minute! The UFO is showing activity, I repeat, the UFO is showing activity!"

The camera swings around toward the island. White lights have appeared at the edges of the rays leading away from the stinger. They close in on the stinger. As they disappear into it, a ray of light shoots from the tip and makes contact with the radio antenna on top of the main watchtower. There are screams coming from the boats now, as the people in the boat realize what it's doing. Boats are turning around, trying to get away from the inevitable explosion. The din of shattering glass coming from the prison rises over the screaming, no easy thing to do. As the shaft of light goes through its colors, ships are knocking together, people are falling out, some are jumping to try to swim to Maui, the nearest island. But as a booming noise reaches their ears, everyone knows they are much too late.

The watchtower explodes with a deafening roar. The walls surrounding the tower are either knocked flat or are lifting up into the air. But it isn't just the structure on land that blows up. The island itself, a former volcano, cracks and shudders. As flames try to come out of the rocks, they hit seawater, which turns into superheated steam which races for the surface in bubbles the size of cars. Then suddenly, the island, surface and base, blasts itself into oblivion, taking a few billion gallons of seawater with it.

It's like watching a shock wave. You see the water flash boil and disappear in an ever widening circle. Boats and sea salt are suspended in air for the briefest moment, then fall to the exposed seabed. The nearer the boats to the island, the less distance to fall, but some boats are very far away from the island. 

Circle of evaporated water engulfs Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and touches the shores of the Big Island and Oahu. Imagine, you're playing on the beach, and suddenly the water's gone. People who were supported by the water lose their balance and fall. People are screaming, they don't what's happening. And suddenly the water comes.

The Pacific Ocean reacts to the sudden absence of water with a tidal wave. A wall of water fifty feet high rushes in to replace the water that is lost. When the wave reaches the former site of Kahoolawe there are no people there, just the UFO. As the waters close in on the crater that was an island, a jet of lava suddenly bursts out, almost touching the UFO. As the water closes the whole in the ocean, the pale glow of lava can be seen even from the surface, as the spacecraft turns north towards Maui.


	12. Chapter XII

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.

D.C. and Dean characters I invented. For details on DC, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five. For info on Dean, see "Mutant Roundup: Chapter Nine."

"The alien spacecraft is down! The alien spacecraft is down!"

The pilot screamed the words over and over, as if making sure everyone in the world knew it. 

After the destruction of Kahoolawe and the volcanic eruption that came right after, fighter jets had been dispatched to attack the spaceship. It was moving northeast towards mainland USA. The fighter jets had flown around it a couple of times, then released a couple of missiles to see how the aliens would react. The result was…astounding. The missiles exploded about ten meters away from the UFO. And it suddenly and unexpectedly caught on fire.

Giant jets of flame poured out from the ship. The whole twenty mile wide thing started to wobble like a top that's slowing down. The edges splashed down on the sea, and the ship suddenly righted itself, stopped moving, and then dropped like a stone.

When it hit the water it created a twenty foot high wave that washed up in Alaska, Canada, the US, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. The spacecraft then listed to one side. The water was only two miles deep here, so the dipping edge hit the bottom before it could tilt very far. When it did hit the bottom it cut a phone line leading from Hawaii to the mainland. The military wanted to hop onboard for a look-see, but somehow the crazy man with the shotgun had managed to save his rowboat from the tidal wave and the volcanic eruption. He had also stolen a rocket launcher from a battleship which he fired at anyone who came anywhere near the spacecraft. However, the spacecraft started to sink, so he jumped off into his rowboat. The spacecraft disappeared below the surface and settled onto the seabed without incident.

Then it blew up.

It heated the surrounding seawater so hot that the hydrogen and oxygen broke apart, releasing giant bubbles to the surface. On the surface, an area twenty miles across was boiling like mad. When it finally stopped, a submersible was sent down to find any wreckage left behind. It didn't find a thing. It repaired the phone line and headed back to the surface, only to be greeted by the crazy man, his shotgun, and his rocket launcher.

And now we're headed back to New York City, baby! 

DC and Dean, after going through the phone line to the mainland headed back to New York to find the odd looking man with blue skin DC had left in the OMA's former capitol room. When they got there, the fellow was nowhere to be seen in the common room, so they headed down to the blue room. When DC opened the door, a sudden blur passed through the air and a foot planted itself squarely on his face, knocking him backwards.

"Hey, hey, hey! It's me you dolt!" 

"Sorry."

The fellow gave DC his hand, and as DC took it, he noticed that instead of feeling smooth skin he felt short fur. The fellow didn't have blue skin, he had blue fur that was very short. And he also had only three fingers. Oh well. It's not like I've never seen that before. Iliad has only two fingers. DC thought. Iliad was a red DC was very good friends with, but at the moment Iliad was in Australia for some reason or another. 

"Vhere have you been? You left yesterday, und I stayed avake all night vaiting for you."

"I got a little sidetracked."

"Um, DC? Who is this guy?"

"Oh yeah, um, Dean meet…"

"Kurt."

"Dean, meet Kurt, Kurt, meet Dean."

"Hello."

"Gutantoug."

"Riiiiiiiight. Let's go."

Two days later.

"The military is getting more and more embaressed as the scandal reveals more and more. It turns out the _Virgo_ was sunk by a military submarine. The sinking left all 963 on board dead. In addition, there seems to have been two mutant prison complexes, but the mutants in the other one, located in upstate New York, broke out and destroyed the complex and presumably fled to Canada. 

"In other news the alien spacecraft that blew up several warehouses and destroyed the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe and then crashed into the Pacific 500 miles from Hawaii, has left no traceable wreckage. Authorities have concluded that-"

At that point, Dean shut off the TV. He got up to find DC and walked down the hall of the stately old mansion that Professor X had moved his school too. Dean had been told that before the passing of the MRA, it had just been a high school, but with the addition of 100 or so younger kids an elementary and junior high had been added. And the school had acquired two new teachers as well. Remy Lebeau and Kurt Wagner had both agreed to stay at the mansion. Remy and Kurt also opened a new class, gymnastics and acrobatics. It was extremely popular. 

Professor X had asked DC whether he wanted to become a teacher. DC thought very hard for a couple of seconds before declining.

"Why?"

"I was always planning on leaving as soon as I graduated. I'd love to be a teacher here, I really would, but not now. Maybe sometime later."

"Will you be leaving soon?"

"Maybe in a couple of months."

The professor did not press the issue.

Dean was a very good student and for his help in freeing the mutants from Kahoolawe, had been upgraded in the OMA to green and was just starting his six month period of work as ambassador to another certain organization of mutants that was very very small at the moment. He was of course very disappointed that DC wouldn't be staying, but a guy who commands energy is not a guy you want to argue with.

"There's one thing I don't get." said Dean. He had found DC and they were walking to lunch together.

"Why didn't you create a hologram of the UFO? It wouldn't have been a strain on you or I."

"But it had to be as convincing as possible. A hologram doesn't show up on radar screens for one thing. And how else was I supposed to prove you worthy for the blue class?"

Dean smiled slightly at this.

"Also, how did you get all the members out of the spaceship to Canada? We weren't connected to any power or phone lines."

"When I blew up the warehouse, the fireball engulfed ten other warehouses, each of which still had power."

"I got ya." 

The OMA now existed everywhere in the world except the US. Professor X had seeked membership, but was told he was too old. But he did have the satisfaction of knowing that if the OMA did get in some kind of trouble, his name would be at the top of a very short list of people to call.

And the crazy man popped up out of nowhere, ran for president, and won.

The End.


End file.
